Concerns
have been raised that another rise in local parking charges is being forced
through without proper consultation.

The rise,
which is due to come into effect on the 20th June, would affect all parking
meters and pay and display bays in the Chiswick area where charges are
already significantly higher than the rest of the borough of Hounslow.
There does not appear to be corresponding increases elsewhere. The proposal
is to standardise all the pay and display bays and parking meters at £1.20
an hour in the Chiswick CPZ zones. The maximum stay in each zone would
be either 2 hours or four hours.

In the East
Chiswick CPZ the new rates represent doubling of the rates charges currently
made in some pay and display bays.

Most of the
meters and pay display machines previously charged a rate equivalent to
a pound an hour. Because the machines do not give change it is likely
that many people will end up paying above the £1.20 and hour charge
because they will not have the correct change.

Robin Cox,
a co-opted member of the Chiswick Area Committee, said that these changes
had not been put before the committee for review. He only became aware
of the plans when he spotted a public notice printed in a local newspaper.

Under current
legislation the Council is not obliged to publish public notices in the
most widely read media in the area so it is possible for them to put potentially
controversial notices in newspapers with a limited readership in the relevant
area.